Disclaimer/Author's Note: I don't own Dr Who. I am just someone who keeps getting hit by plot bunnies. This is dedicated to my wonderful theatrical friends who keep inspiring me with wonderful ideas and situations. This is set about 11 years after Bad wolf Bay.
About two in the afternoon the next day the Doctor, and Rose pulled up in front of an old hunting sea side estate.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Rose asked.
"These are the directions Matthew gave us." The Doctor got out of the jeep.
"Nice place for a holiday," A man in his early twenties pulled a couple medical bags out of the back of the jeep.
"Dealing with blood sucking creatures is NOT my idea of a holiday." Jake said as he got out of the other side of the jeep.
Everyone's heads turned to where the front door opened of the estate. "Welcome to Westendra Manor"
"Thank you and you are?" Rose offered him her hand.
"Rose, this is Mathew Harker. He is the chief barrister for the Harker-Holms firm." The Doctor introduced them, "Mathew this is Rose Tyler-Smith. She is my liaison to Torchwood, and the one who is matrimonial bound to try to keep me out of trouble."
"The last part is the only part of the job that I have difficulty at." Rose smiled. "Nice to meet you."
"The one looking like a pack mule is Arthur, he's in charge of medical, and Jake is here for security."
"Nice to meet you all, please come in where we can discuss what has been going on."
The Doctor let Jake and Arthur enter before him as he took hold of Rose's arm, "Are you sure you are alright? You don't look like you feel well."
"Doctor, I'm fine." She flashed him a smile, "We just spent 6 hours in a car. We haven't had lunch yet, and I am worried about leaving James and Verity behind. I. Am. Fine."
"Alright, but if…"
"If I starting feeling bad I'll tell you; I promise." She kissed his cheek then headed in. Still a little concerned the Doctor followed her inside.
Mathew had tea and sandwiches waiting for them when they entered the parlor of the house.
"Leave your things in the hall, and my staff with take them to your rooms." Mathew directed and then took a seat in one of the chairs. "Please help yourself to the tea and sandwiches. I assure you my cook is quite accomplished."
"Thank you." The travelers made themselves at home.
"Obviously I received your report Mathew, but can you tell us what has been going on?"
"On September 14th we had a bad storm off the coast which caused a cargo ship to run aground about 5 miles down the coast." Mathew leaned forward and spoke to all of them.
"We heard about that. The only crew member found was the captain, and he had tied himself to the wheel." Rose nodded.
"The log book, and computer systems show no malfunctions prior to the storm hitting them. After that, there are blank; no GPS, no trackers, no computer records at all." Mathew continued.
"So, no survivors and no records of what caused the grounding." Jake commented from where he stood by the door.
"At least that is what we thought at first." Mathew looked to Jake, "That was until two days later when 2 of the village children found a woman washed up on the beach near death. She was dehydrated, malnourished, and sunburned."
"Who was she?" Rose asked.
"She couldn't remember her name. The most we could get out of her was that she was on the cargo ship during the storm. The next thing she remembered was waking up in hospital."
"When did the deaths start happening?" The Doctor asked.
"Our mystery girl had left the hospital for a small flat. Three days after living there her land lady found her dead, her blood drained."
"What about the other's?" Rose asked.
"Albert Jacobs, he is a local fisherman. They found him on the docks. The last one was Gregory Finn, a local cattle farmer. All were found drained of blood."
"And those that weren't killed?" Arthur asked from his full plate of sandwiches. Rose gave him a disgusted look but he rolled his eyes.
"All but one of the victims are currently at the local hospital with similar symptoms as our mystery girl. Only theirs has progressed to sleep walking as well, and what is odd is that they are continuing to loose blood despite blood transfusions."
"Where is the missing victim?" The Doctor asked.
"It is me." A voice came from the hallways. Jake stepped out of the way to let petite woman with dark hair enter the room, "I'm Joesphine Harker, Mathew's wife."
"Do you remember what happened to you?" The Doctor asked once Mrs. Harker was seated with a cup of herbal tea.
"Mathew was working late at the firm last week. My hobby is showing champion warm bloods. One of my prize mares has been having a rough pregnancy. She was due any time, and I went out to check on her." She sipped her tea, but spilled much of it due to her shaking. "When I got to the stable I heard the horses being unsteady. I went to my mare and found that she was wild eyed and nervous. I entered her stall to comfort her. My presence helped, but I left her stall to get her a treat from the tack room. I don't remember much after that until Matthew found me later that night."
"How did you find her?" Rose asked.
"When I got home late that night none of the servants had seen her. We began searching and we found her in the walkway between the stalls and the tack room. She was sheet white, and unconscious. We called for an ambulance. The doctors couldn't find what caused my blood loss."
"What treatment did they give you?" Arthur asked his notebook in hand.
"They gave me 4 pints of blood to start with." Mrs. Harker looked to her husband, as she couldn't stop shaking. Rose took her free hand.
Mathew continued for her, "They treated her for shock as well. They didn't know what caused her blood loss other than the single puncture wound to her neck."
"Has there been any other incidents since the stable?" The Doctor asked.
"No," she looked up at him slightly fearful, "I don't leave the house much, but when I do I am always accompanied by someone else."
Arthur turned a page in is note book, "The others, Mr. Harker said that their cases have progressed with odd symptoms, have you experience anything odd?"
"I ran a high fever for the three days following. We have managed to keep the fevers under control but I still frequently get the chills. I also get dizzy due to bad head aches but nothing like the other's."
"Why didn't you stay and get treatment at hospital?" Rose asked helping her set her tea cup down.
"Since our son was born, I have not been very trusting of hospitals." Mrs. Harker hid her face in her hands.
The Doctor looked to Mathew with the unspoken question, "Our son, Daniel, he was born early with complications. Due to a doctor's mishandling of the case, his issues were exacerbated. We lost him last March. Since then we have avoided going to medical doctors when ever we can."
Rose wanted to ask more about Daniel, but one look from the Doctor she decided to try another approach. "What did you do to care for yourself?"
"After they gave me the blood transfusion there was little else they COULD do for me. At the time I wasn't running a fever, and other than being weak, I was fine. When I did start showing symptoms I thought they were just a bad flu or something, and did a normal treatment for that."
"Which was?" Arthur asked.
"Herbal teas that lower fevers, vitamins to boost the immune system, any natural medical treatments for what was happening to me." She supplied.
"I'd like to get samples of the products you used. It is possible that one of them is doing something to help you that the others in the hospital are not getting."
"I will have the servants give you the samples you need." Mrs. Harker wiped her face again and made to stand, "I'm going to go lay down for a while. Nice to meet all of you." She excused her self as all of them watched her go.
When she was gone the Doctor turned to Mathew. "She isn't alright, is she?"
"She has nightmares, every night." Mathew started to pace a little, "She doesn't sleep walk but she gets no peace."
"She spoke of your son, Daniel. Could her illness now be effected by any condition he may have had?" Rose asked.
Mathew shrugged, "Daniel was two years old. His medical issues were not genetic, but the loss of our son has affected us both deeply. I don't know what I would tell him if he was here. Because of her nightmares I must sleep in another room. I can hear her screams at night. I don't know what to tell the staff when they ask if she is alright."
"Well, the first thing you can tell them is that the Doctor and his friends are here to help her."
With a sigh Rose dropped onto their bed. "What a day."
"It's a start." The Doctor hung up the few bits of clothing they had brought with them. "Arthur is going to be monitoring Mrs. Harker's vitals during the night. If anything is wrong the alarms will go off. Jake and I are going to trade off sentry duty tonight."
"What about me?" Rose asked as she prepared for bed.
"You are going to get some rest." He laid a finger to Rose's lips before she could complain. "You have not been feeling well lately, and don't tell me you aren't tired. I swear you nearly fell asleep in the middle of dinner tonight."
Rose glared at him, but its fire lost a bit with her smile, "Well Mathew has a voice that can put you to sleep."
"Most barristers' do." The Doctor smirked as he slipped his trainer off.
"Besides," Rose continued, "I'm not the only one who is looking a little peaky. If this wasn't critical I would have had put this off for another week or so."
"Oh I'm fine," He brushed it off as he crawled into the bed next to her, "Probably just picked up sniffles or something from Ver or James. Nothing serious." He shifted himself to get into a comfortable position next to her.
"Doctor…" Rose asked as she felt the Doctor snuggle up to her back, his left arm across her waist.
"Hmm…" He sat his chin on the top of her head.
"If something was wrong, you would tell me, wouldn't you?" He looked back at him.
"Of course," He kissed the top of her head, "Just as you would tell me." He moved his other arm so that it ran under her pillow. "Now get some sleep, we have blood suckers to catch."
Author's Note: As promised another chapter. What is going on here? Can you guess?